When You Say Nothing At All
by x-Bademancer-x
Summary: Inspired by a friend's artwork of Chell and Link on DeviantART see link inside . Commission for said friend. Chell and Link have both escaped their own treacherous hells, and have found their way to each other during their own personal escapes. Fluff. First Crossover. ChellxLink.


**Hey, everyone! I bet you all thought I was dead. Well, I'm not. Just...oh, gosh, Tumblr has really gotten to me. I LIVE on there now. It's amazing how addicted you can get.**

**So, this was done as a request by a close friend of mine who is a RIDICULOUSLY talented artist. I had this really ugly pair of Shape-Ups sneakers, and I was pretty much embarrassed to wear them, but I _really _wanted to get more exercise. So I went to my friend (optimisticpessimist7[dot]deviantart[dot]com) and asked if she could do anything to make them prettier. She took them in, painted Portal characters, themes, symbols and logos all over them, and now they're a stunning, _beautiful _work of art instead of a crappy old pair of $20 sneakers. And in payment, all she asked for in return was FanFiction of Chell from Portal and Link from Legend of Zelda.**

**This one's for you, gurlie. I hope I don't butcher it! I've never played LoZ in my life! Haha. Hope you enjoy =)**

**-CheckItOutGirl=)**

**. . .**

_When You Say Nothing At All_

_~The smile on your face lets me know that you need me  
There's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me  
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall  
You say it best when you say nothing at all~_

It was as if these treacherous rolling fields of golden-hued wheat never ended.

Abruptly throwing down her dirtied, battered Companion Cube into the cracked, hot dirt baking under the mid-afternoon sun, Chell wiped an equally hot hand across her sweaty forehead, raising her crystal blue irises to briefly squint furiously into the agonizing source of her troubles. She'd only experienced the sun for a few days, now—a few long, torturous days without any food or water, a predicament seemingly far worse than any test Aperture could have thrown at her—and she already despised its existence.

Lowering her head in defeat as the heat started to make her head swim, she drew her knees up to her chest and perched herself completely atop the friendly metal box, curling into herself as she struggled not to let the white spots clouding her vision take her under. She'd fought so hard for this, for her _freedom_—but at times like these, when she was desperately in need of nourishment and most likely medical attention, all of which could be acquired back at that hellhole of a facility, Chell couldn't help but question whether or not all of her efforts were worth it.

But she was jostled out of her thoughts when she felt a strong, muscular hand fall on top of her left kneecap, causing her to instinctively flinch away at the touch and shape her hands to fit a portal gun as her head snapped up to assess the threat. But when she found that the cold, sleek frame of the Aperture Science Quantum Tunneling Device was no longer in her possession and the greatest threat she had right now was a strange man with light-colored hair, a peculiar green outfit on, and eyes the same translucent sky blue as hers, she very slowly let her guard crumble like the specks of dust under their feet.

However, in the process, she also managed to jump right off of her trusty Companion Cube from the startle and land with a harsh "huff" on the unforgiving ground.

Link, as he'd introduced himself in a simple word and an awkward attempt at a handshake, wasted no time in rushing over to the pained mistress he'd run across in the same field merely a day ago, having been one of the first things he'd come in contact with that hadn't tried to kill him the second he was in a mere yard's length. Bending over her in a clumsy excuse for a protective stance, he extended his scarred palm toward her in an offer to help her up as he tentatively slid a hand underneath the small of her back. Raising her torso up carefully, as if she were a fragile porcelain doll or precious jewel, their faces were soon a few slight inches apart, their eyes doing the communication they both seemed unable to attain or push past their parted lips.

To anyone who might trespass across such a sight as this, they might have found it rather odd—a scene painted in a meadow of wheat colored by the sun's own rays of a tall, toned young man with foreign clothing and a dirty, sweat-soaked young lady with hopeless submission written all over her face in worry lines and unshed tears, hanging onto each other like their lives depended on it. But to those who dared to look closer would find that they have more in common than they'd ever know, for they lacked the words to share the stories they'd much rather keep locked in the deepest subconscious of their unstable minds. They both had scars, emotional and physical, that were sewn closed in a hurry just to get through the next obstacle that was thrown at them, not allowing them to properly break when they so desperately needed to. Troubled scenes danced behind the foggy, silvery blue of both their irises, tormenting them in their sleep. Yet still, they trekked on, forcing themselves beyond their limits to reach the insane goals they'd set for themselves with determination that surpassed that of a normal human being's.

Tracing her fingers delicately across a new cut she noticed on his nose, a small frown tugged at the corners of Chell's lips, and she quickly let them drop instead into the palm he held out in offering, wrapping her other arm around his neck as he grunted with the strain of pulling her up. His joints, his muscles, his entire body ached with a searing fire that burned him whenever Link dared to move, far different from the fire scorching the earth beneath them at the present moment. Still, he carried on, both for himself and the woman he'd felt compelled to rescue by his own accord rather than being summoned to for once.

Interlocking her fingers with his strong ones and staring into the rapidly fading sunset, Chell drew her eyes to the complicated web of orange, pink, and yellow hues dancing across the horizon, enticing Link to give it a good stare as well. As they watched the giant blazing orb sink into space and the stars begin to peek out of their hidden nighttime chambers, Chell broke into a morbid grin of satisfaction as she saw a curious shooting star with a strange blue glow race across the sky. Chuckling slightly to herself, she turned to face Link once more, and the boy couldn't stop a lopsided smile similar to hers from forming on his tight-lipped mouth.

And then, with an unspoken signal they were both still getting used to, they continued on their journeys out of their own personal labyrinths of torturous, terrible memories, each step creating a greater distance and lightening their spirits marginally as time unceasingly passed.

Because, after all, this _was_ worth it.

_~It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart  
Without saying a word you can light up the dark  
Try as I may I could never explain  
What I hear when you don't say a thing...~_


End file.
